Naval Expertise Conference - Registration Open
REGISTRATION
NOW OPEN
Naval
Expertise and the Making of the Modern World
Wolfson
College, University of Oxford
10-11
May 2013
This
conference examines the generation of expertise in naval contexts and traces
how such developments helped shape the modern world. Expertise will be
considered not only as knowledge but also as methods and practices central to
the evolution of modern nation states and empires.
In
the search for useful knowledge and in answering the demands of global
infrastructure, navies have not only pursued military aims, but have also
encouraged the formation of other areas of expertise, whether medical,
technological, or bureaucratic. Recent research has identified navies as
forerunners of modern scientific research, social disciplinary practices, and
political economy for instance. This conference will explore such developments
comparatively and consider their influence in the early modern and modern
periods. By exploring how issues such as social welfare, professionalization
and industrialization shaped and were shaped by naval institutions and
innovations, this inter-disciplinary conference will link scholarship on naval
infrastructure with research on the origins of the modern world.
Speakers
and discussants include Dr Eric H. Ash (Wayne State), Dr William J. Ashworth
(Liverpool), Dr Maria Fusaro (Exeter), Prof. N. A. M. Rodger (Oxford), and
Prof. Mark Harrison (Oxford).